Every growing medical practice eventually hits the same wall: the systems that got you here won’t get you where you’re going next. For Armstrong Medical Centre, that wall had a name an ageing Avaya phone system that was costly to maintain, prone to dropouts, and about as far from “scalable” as a communications platform can get. Rather than keep patching around it, the practice called in Byteway to rebuild its entire communications and IT backbone from scratch. Not a patch job. A proper rebuild, with growth baked into every decision.
Client Overview
Armstrong Medical Centre needed a modern communications platform that could support growing operations while improving reliability and lowering running costs at the same time, two goals that, on paper, can feel like they pull in opposite directions. Byteway delivered an end-to-end upgrade spanning telephony, connectivity, hardware and backup, treating each piece as part of one connected system rather than a series of separate purchases. It’s exactly the kind of project many growing practices quietly put off for months, or years, simply because they assume it means weeks of disruption, confused staff, and a phone system that doesn’t work properly for a fortnight while everyone gets used to it. That assumption is usually wrong, but it takes the right partner to prove it.
The Problems Slowing the Practice Down
- Legacy Avaya phone system that was costly to maintain and increasingly difficult to scale as the practice added staff and services.
- Outbound SIP calling issues, directly affecting call reliability for both staff trying to reach patients and patients trying to reach the practice.
- Ageing on-premises server infrastructure, quietly increasing the risk of downtime with every passing month.
- Limited internet connectivity, unable to support the cloud-based communication tools that had become standard elsewhere.
- Outdated desktop hardware, slowing staff down in daily tasks that should have taken seconds, not minutes.
The Byteway Rebuild
- Cloud PBX migration — moved the practice from Avaya to a fully hosted cloud phone system, delivered through Hosted PBX / Cloud VoIP, removing the on-site hardware dependency entirely.
- Hosted cloud voice platform — replaced unreliable SIP telephony with a more stable, cloud-native alternative built for the way the practice actually operates.
- Dedicated NBN Enterprise Ethernet Fibre — delivered through Byteway’s Dedicated Fibre service, giving the practice enterprise-grade connectivity for both voice and data traffic.
- Unlimited local, national and mobile calling — simplified telecom costs into one predictable line item and removed the usage caps that made budgeting a guessing game.
- Cloud backup — strengthened business continuity through Cloud Backup Solutions, so a hardware failure no longer meant a data disaster.
- New server deployment and hardware refresh — modernised the practice’s core computing environment from the inside out.
- Kyocera managed printing — streamlined document handling through Office Printers & MFDs, cutting down on the small daily frustrations that add up over a year.
- Jabra professional headsets — improved call quality and physical comfort for staff spending hours on the phone every day.
What Changed for the Practice?
- Reliable, cloud-based communications across every single desk, not just the front office.
- Meaningfully lower telephony costs through simplified, unlimited calling plans.
- Better call quality for both staff and patients, with fewer dropped or garbled calls.
- Stronger disaster recovery and business continuity, giving the practice genuine peace of mind.
- A modern IT environment that’s actually ready to support future expansion, rather than one more thing standing in the way of it.
One of the most common questions practices ask before switching from a legacy PBX is simple. How long does the cutover actually take, and will calls be lost during it? For Armstrong, the migration to hosted cloud voice was staged carefully around clinic hours, meaning patient calls were never interrupted and staff experienced the change as a gradual improvement rather than a disruptive event. Another frequent concern is whether unlimited calling plans genuinely work out cheaper than a traditional line-rental model. In Armstrong’s case, removing usage caps and consolidating multiple services under one provider simplified the monthly bill considerably, replacing several unpredictable line items with one clear, manageable cost.
A third question worth answering here, since it comes up in almost every conversation about switching phone systems: what happens to the printers, scanners and other office hardware sitting on the same network during a project like this? It’s usually worth reviewing at the same time rather than separately. Byteway’s Office Printers & MFDs and Managed Print Services were part of the broader refresh here alongside the Kyocera rollout, so the practice ended up with one consistent standard across phones, computers and printers instead of three separate systems ageing at three different rates.
Ready to move on from a legacy phone system that’s holding your practice back? Byteway designs managed IT services built specifically for growing healthcare practices. Talk to the team about what your current setup could look like instead.
